State Releases Latest Cornerstone Marijuana Study

As the result of Tuesday’s election, Michigan became the 10th state to allow the sale and possession of recreational marijuana, and voters in Missouri and Utah approved initiatives to allow medical marijuana.

Meanwhile in Colorado, the state’s still-young recreational marijuana experiment has yielded new, wide-reaching research in the form of a study by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice. Released Oct. 26, “Impacts on Marijuana Legalization in Colorado” compiled statistics from various state agencies regarding marijuana-related criminal filings, DUIs, black market indicators and other measurables.

The DCJ research is an ongoing effort to track the effects legalized marijuana has had on Colorado’s public health and safety. While the data carries plenty of caveats by the researchers’ own admission, criminal defense attorneys say the information points to larger trends in marijuana enforcement that they’ve observed in their own practices.